November 2, 2012, Friday, 306

Jacob Kline

From The Peopling of New York City

File:104859697.pdf [1] This is a photo of a New York Times article with some information on the victims and some interesting photos of the event. Follow the link to see it. Unfortunately, I cannot post it on this page.


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Finding Jacob's census data also proved to be trickier than I thought it would be. At the same time I found a false Anna Altman at the NYPL, I found the wrong Jacob Kline too. When I was looking through census books at the NYPL, I found about four combined pages full of Jacob Kline's and Klein's (I did not know about the Kleim variety yet). Age was really the only criteria I had for discriminating between them (since the address was only specified to the Ward of residency) so I wrote down a list of potential Jacob's. I did, however, find Jacob Klein's death certificate number at the NYPL and considering his death was the most specific bit of information I had about him, I realize in retrospect that death certificates is where I should have begun my search (it would have saved me a lot of time and effort). Only after I found his death certificate at the Municipal Archives was I ready to search for census information. I went to the Brooklyn College Library and searched through the city directories for Jacob Klein. But this was before I learned that he moved just months before his death so I may have overlooked the real Klein. After I figured it out I decided that searching in the directories would not be productive because it gives even less information than the census data and the college does not have books on the Bronx. As for the census information, I finally found him listed under Kleim but I am confident that it is him. The year of immigration, the parents' names, and age are all consistent.

Jacob Klein was born in Russia in the early months of 1887. His father was Barnett A Klein and his mother was Fanny Barsky-Klein. [2] [3] Barnett and Fanny married in 1980 and had seven children, however, only two of her sons remained alive in 1910. [4] It is possible that her other children died in the United States but I think it is much more likely that they were killed in Russia during one of the many pogroms. Only that would explain such a great loss in the family without stretching the imagination with coincidences. The deaths of five children may have been the primary causative factor of the Klein’s immigration to the United States in 1906. They moved straight to New York City and began renting a small tenement apartment in an all Russian-Jewish neighborhood on Stanton Street. When they first moved to the new country, Barnett was 46 years old, Fanny was 41 years old, Jacob was 19, and his brother, Harrold, was only 14. Both sons were single. In 1907, the family took on a lodger, Philip Baski, also a Russian Jew, 15 years old at the time. [5] It is possible that Philip is not just a boarder of Klein but actually a relative from Fanny’s side of the family, perhaps her nephew, because his last name is very similar to her maiden name. However, it could just be a coincidence. My searches for the Klein's on the passenger lists of Stephen P. Morse and Ellis Island were fruitless. I looked through many potential Kleins, Klines, and Kleims during my search but none of them matched Jacob or his family.

Jacob, Harrold, and Philip all learned how to read and write in English and got jobs relatively quickly. [6] One Saturday afternoon in 1908, Jacob was already working in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory as a contractor and head of a crew of a few sewing machine operators. He was described as a “soft spoken man” but his anger got the best of him after he was given an envelope with his pay. Klein realized that he would have almost no money left for himself after paying his workers. He began yelling at the foreman and refusing to leave when asked to. The foreman, Samuel Bernstein, had Morris Goldfarb, a powerful cutter and the factories’ muscle, to kick Jacob Klein out. [7] Klein protested but he was a tiny man; he was five feet and nine inches tall and weighed about 163 pounds[8], so was dragged and slapped out the door, his shirt torn and his glasses broken. As Klein yelled, “Will you stay at your machines and see a fellow worker treated this way?” all the workers got up immediately and walked out. However, by Monday, every worker, including Klein, was back at work. [9] A year later in 1909, Jacob Klein went on that historic strike with the rest of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory with limited success. [10] The strike caused him to stay home for twenty weeks that year.

Meanwhile, Jacob’s father owned a stand selling soda water. [11] The stand was probably a very small enterprise catering only to the local Jews, it is known that Barnett only spoke Yiddish (though he knew how to read and write in it) so his costumers must have been only Jews. Jacob’s mother, Fanny, was unemployed and also spoke only Yiddish. She knew how to read in it but not write in it. Jacob, Harrold, and Philip all spoke English and knew how to read and write. Though Harrold was a salesman at a department store and Philip was a shipping clerk at a department store, both attended school and did not contribute much to supporting the family. [12] Barnett’s soda stand was not very lucrative and Jacob virtually supported the entire family on his salary of 18 dollars a week. [13] It is no surprise that Jacob lost his temper at the factory.

A few months before the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, Jacob Klein got married to a woman whose first name begins with a B (that is all the information about her I was able to attain, I was unable to find their marriage certificate at the Municipal Archives). The newlywed couple moved into 1301 Washington Avenue in the Bronx. [14] On March 25, 1911, Jacob Klein died at five o’clock PM from asphyxiation from the smoke; his body was charred. [15] He was last seen trying to wrestle a locked door open on the Washington Place side with another coworker. [16] His body was not identified until March, 27. [17] He was found with a time book with no name, a gold watch in a hunting case with the inscription “A.D.” on it, and a card that said “ Mr. and Mrs. J. Klein, No. 1,625 Washington Avenue, the Bronx" [18]. He was buried on March 28, 1911 in Mount Foire Cemetery. [19] It is interesting that on March 26, 1911 his body was still listed in the New York Times as one of the unidentified though the card with his name on it would have made it obvious to anyone who would have went looking for him. [20] I can only presume nobody from his family went to try to identify him, or was otherwise unable to do so, until two days later. [21] There were a few issues regarding the aid provided to Jacob Klein’s family. The Joint Committee decided that there was no proof that Jacob continued supporting his father after he got married and that Jacob’s brother, Harrold, should start working and supporting the family (since he is an adult) so all the money was going to go to the widow. However, the widow could not remarry unless she got a release from her brother-in-law, Harrold. And Harrold refused to give her that release unless his own claims to the money were satisfied. So the Joint Relief Committee on the Triangle Fire Disaster paid Barnett’s family 100 dollars and the widow 170 dollars to support her until the insurance money of 450 dollars would be paid to her by the Independent Order, Sons of Jacob, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania three months after Jacob’s death. The Joint Committee also paid for Jacob Klein's funeral and tombstone[22]. Three years after the catastrophe, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company was finally ordered to pay 75 dollars to each victim's family, in this case Jacob's wife [23].

I may have found Jacob's parents in the 1930 census records. They lived in Manhattan and his father owned a candy and soda store. His mother was still unemployed. I found nothing on Harrold [24].

A problem I had searching for Klein was that most of my sources just reiterated the same basic information. Digging up more than just the same details was very rare. Like with Anna Altman, the overview I wrote regarding my experiences are just that, an overview. I do not wish to complain about the long and tedious process that is social history research. However, I confess that, when writing this wiki up, I surprised myself with how much I actually unearthed about these people. And it is very satisfying to watch the lives of these people unfold. And though my viewpoint is from the height of the century of history that separates us, I cannot help but pity and relate to their lives (especially the Kleins' tragic family). I now know that I do not have it in me to become an social historian but I have gained a new respect and appreciation for the hard and valuable work that they do.


References

  1. 4. "Death List Shows Few Identified," New York Times, March 26, 1911, Archives.
  2. Manhattan Death Certificates 1911, Microfilm roll 775, numbers 9995-10952, Municipal Archives: New York City, 10391
  3. www.ancestry.com
  4. www.ancestry.com
  5. www.ancestry.com
  6. www.ancestry.com
  7. David Von Drehle, Triangle (New York: Grove Press, 2003), 35.
  8. 4. "Death List Shows Few Identified," New York Times, March 26, 1911, Archives.
  9. David Von Drehle, Triangle (New York: Grove Press, 2003), 36.
  10. Joanne Reitano, The Restless City (New York: Routledge, 2006), 121-123
  11. www.ancestry.com
  12. www.ancestry.com
  13. The Triangle Factory Fire. "REPORT of the JOINT RELIEF COMMITTEE, LADIES’ WAIST & DRESSMAKERS’ UNION No. 25 On the TRIANGLE FIRE DISASTER," http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/texts/reports/jrc_011513.html
  14. Manhattan Death Certificates 1911, Microfilm roll 775, numbers 9995-10952, Municipal Archives: New York City, 10391
  15. Manhattan Death Certificates 1911, Microfilm roll 775, numbers 9995-10952, Municipal Archives: New York City, 10391
  16. David Von Drehle, Triangle (New York: Grove Press, 2003), 168.
  17. 2. "27 More Identified in Morgue Search," New York Times, March 28, 1911, Archives.
  18. 4. "Death List Shows Few Identified," New York Times, March 26, 1911, Archives.
  19. Manhattan Death Certificates 1911, Microfilm roll 775, numbers 9995-10952, Municipal Archives: New York City, 10391
  20. 4. "Death List Shows Few Identified," New York Times, March 26, 1911, Archives.
  21. 2. "27 More Identified in Morgue Search," New York Times, March 28, 1911, Archives.
  22. The Triangle Factory Fire. "REPORT of the JOINT RELIEF COMMITTEE, LADIES’ WAIST & DRESSMAKERS’ UNION No. 25 On the TRIANGLE FIRE DISASTER," http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/texts/reports/jrc_011513.html
  23. Joanne Reitano, The Restless City (New York: Routledge, 2006), 124
  24. www.ancestry.com